


Make You Feel My Love

by blondsak



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Defenestrating canon as usual, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, It's just hard, May Parker is Trying Her Best, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter Parker is a Mess, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Worried May Parker (Spider-Man), Worried Tony Stark, a Morgan is May's Daughter instead of Tony's AU, don't ask me how they fixed things they just did
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-31
Updated: 2020-01-31
Packaged: 2021-02-25 13:40:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22496983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blondsak/pseuds/blondsak
Summary: Watching May hold her daughter - the daughter shechoseto adopt, unlike the little orphaned kid she and Ben had taken in out of obligation - the truth hits Peter like a sledgehammer.Morgan belongs to May in a way Peter never has, and never will.//Following the Avenger's defeat of Thanos, Peter comes back to a world where Morgan is May's daughter instead of Tony's.
Relationships: May Parker (Spider-Man) & Peter Parker, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 66
Kudos: 421





	Make You Feel My Love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [coconutknightshade](https://archiveofourown.org/users/coconutknightshade/gifts).



> This fic is a birthday gift for coconutknightshade. Happy birthday, friend-- I hope you have an amazing day!!
> 
> Endless thanks to seekrest for beta'ing this story for me <3

_Peter is running as fast as he can across the rocky, unforgiving terrain. **  
**_

_Even with the light of a sun not his own in his eyes, he can still make out Tony in the distance, Thanos before him._

_The villain is gripping Tony’s head in one hand, the other about to stab Tony through with his own armor._

_“Mr. Stark!” Peter yells, desperate to reach his mentor. “No! Stop!”_

_But no matter how fast Peter runs, he never seems to get any closer. It’s as though he’s knee-deep in quicksand, his legs being pulled down and down and Peter finally looks and–_

_No, he’s not running through sand– he’s_ becoming _it._

 _His feet and legs are turning to dust, he’s withering away. Peter screams, landing hard in the rocky dirt. Yet even in his panic at watching himself disappear he can only think of Tony–_ _Tony who is about to be murdered if Peter doesn’t stop it, if Peter doesn’t save him–_

_“Mr. Stark!” Peter yells, reaching an arm out only to see that it’s also disintegrating and—_

_Oh god, he’s going to die, he’s going to be turn to dust and become nothing but specks of Titan’s earth._

_Peter will never get home, Tony will never get home, they will both die here and they won’t even be together and–_

_Peter sees Thanos pull his arm back only to swing forward–_

_“No!” Peter screams again, but it’s useless._

_He watches in horror as the Titan stabs Tony through, the man twisting his head to look at Peter with a shocked expression. Peter gasps at the same time Tony opens his mouth, blood gushing out before Thanos lets go of him._

_Tony’s body falls limply to the ground, face still turned to Peter but eyes unseeing._

_“No!” Peter screams again, but it comes out a garbled mess._

_Peter can’t breathe, his lungs are nearly gone and soon there will be nothing of him left and god, he doesn’t want to die, he doesn’t want to_ die, _he wants Tony, he wants May, he wants to not die alone, he wants–_

_“Mommy!”_

Peter’s eyes snap open to darkness. For a moment he’s completely disoriented, tears still in his eyes and running down his cheek from the nightmare.

“Mommy!” a high-pitched voice in the bunk bed below calls out again, a long sob escaping after. “Mom!”

“Morgan?” Peter asks sleepily, sitting up quickly only to smack his forehead hard on the ceiling. “Ow! Dammit.”

Just then the bedroom door opens wide, revealing a familiar figure in a robe.

“Sweetheart? What’s wrong?” May asks, hurrying across the room and settling down on Morgan’s bed, the little girl climbing readily into her arms.

“P-petey was crying and yelling and he w-wouldn’t stop!” Morgan says, only to wail again, May muffling it into her shoulder.

Carefully Peter climbs down from the top bunk, coming to stand at the foot of the bed. May only glances over at him once - seemingly not noticing in the dark what is most certainly a blooming bruise on his forehead - before turning back to Morgan, putting her chin over the little girl’s head.

“Oh, sweetheart, Peter just had a nightmare, right Peter?”

Peter nods dumbly even though neither May nor Morgan are looking, only to sniffle and wipe at his face with his arm again as more tears fall.

And god, why can’t he stop crying? It was just a nightmare, Peter got them all the time before he died so it’s not surprising he’d have them now, and probably worse than ever if they’re about Titan. It hadn’t even been a month yet since everyone had come back, after all.

But then Peter realizes… it’s not the nightmare that’s making him cry.

It’s the fact that he’s shivering in the dark in a bedroom that used to be filled with Star Wars memorabilia and dumpster dive finds and Ben’s old chess set but now contains lace curtains and a Barbie dollhouse and a poster from a television show about unicorns Peter has never heard of.

It’s a bedroom that used to be Peter’s but now has a sign on the door declaring in big block letters _MORGAN’S ROOM - STAY OUT!_ – a sign that Peter can’t help but feel was made specifically for him, nevermind Morgan drew it when Peter was still dead.

Peter wraps his arms around his sides, hugging himself as another shiver runs through him– wishing in that moment for nothing more than that May would hold him.

Five years ago - mere weeks to Peter - May would have held him without question. 

She would have gone straight to him and wrapped her arms around Peter, letting him cry into her collarbone and pressing her chin into his shoulder comfortingly. May would have held him because there was nobody else there to occupy that space for either of them, in their little family of two.

But now there wasn’t just Peter, there was Morgan– an adorable five year-old who as an infant survived the car crash that killed her parents only moments after the Snap, and who May had taken in not even a year later.

Watching May hold her daughter - the daughter she _chose_ to adopt, unlike the little orphaned kid she and Ben had taken in out of obligation - the truth hits Peter like a sledgehammer.

Morgan belongs to May in a way Peter never has, and never will.

It was a truth he’d first felt since he’d heard May utter the words _Peter, I have someone for you to meet_ on their apartment building rooftop in Queens, Tony somehow having arranged in all the chaos a small jet to take them there the day after the final battle.

After another long hug from Tony along with a promise that he’d be back soon, May had led him down to their apartment, not letting go of his hand. Peter had been so sure in that moment he was about to meet a boyfriend– no longer seeing Ben’s ring on May’s finger. 

But before they’d even gone across the threshold of their front door he’d heard it - the high-pitched giggle of a little girl.

A little girl who sobered up instantly as soon as she spied Peter, only to run over to May and bury her face in the woman’s hip– May readily dropping Peter’s hand to wrap her arms around the child.

“Peter, this is your little sister Morgan. Morgan, you know who Peter is, don’t you? He’s your big brother– remember, I showed you pictures of him?”

“But he went away,” Morgan had mumbled. “You said he was gone forever.”

May had frowned, tears still in her eyes as she looked first at Peter in distress before turning her gaze back to Morgan. “I thought he was, sweetheart, but he’s home now, and the three of us can be a family together, just like we were always supposed to be. Doesn’t that sound fun?”

Morgan hadn’t responded, but the look she’d given Peter had said everything.

_You don’t belong here._

In the weeks since then, the tension in the apartment hadn’t settled one iota– Morgan wary of Peter, Peter feeling like an intruder even though this had been his home before it had ever been Morgan’s. 

May had done everything she could to try to make things as normal as possible for Peter– pulling a few boxes of his things out while promising they’d get the rest out of storage when they moved, and hanging back up an old photo of Ben, Peter and May at a baseball game that she’d replaced with one of Morgan’s second birthday party. 

But still, it wasn’t enough– not when the clear evidence that May had built a new life for herself in the years after Peter had died was right there in the form of a literal human being, one who demanded May’s constant attention. 

It was surreal, looking down at a little girl that Peter knew in another life he would have loved dearly from the moment May brought her home, but who for now was just a tiny stranger– one who had wailed in protest as Peter built a hastily-bought bunk bed in her bedroom, wondering all the while where the bunk bed he and Ben had set up together when he was ten had disappeared to.

Now Morgan is wailing again, and just as before May is holding her, all the woman’s attention focused on the crying child she has gathered in her arms– May seemingly to have neither the mental bandwidth nor physical arm span to give Peter the comfort he is also so desperately in need of.

Peter feels a sob running up his throat, and suddenly he can’t watch May hold Morgan for even one moment longer.

He trudges past the two of them, ignoring May softly calling out his name and heading for the great room. 

He sits at the dining room table with only the hallway light for company for five minutes, ten, fifteen– waiting for May to come looking for him, to make sure he’s okay. 

But even as he hears Morgan’s cries turn to small sniffles, and finally to silence– May still doesn’t emerge, seemingly having forgotten all about him.

And why would she remember Peter? After all, he was dead for five years and has only been alive again for a few weeks.

It’s probably easy to forget your long-dead kid is back, Peter thinks bitterly, when the other kid you’ve made a new family with has been here the whole time.

The thought brings the repressed sob from earlier bubbling once more toward his tongue, and Peter stands up, feeling like the walls of his _home-not-home_ are closing in on him.

Peter’s breaths start to come quick, heartbeat ramping up, and suddenly he knows he needs to get out of this apartment filled with the ghosts of his old life before he has a panic attack and causes a ruckus all over again.

Even as he fights back the attack, Peter is careful to be quiet as he heads to the front door, pausing only long enough to toe on a pair of new sneakers - currently his only shoes - and grab his phone and house keys before heading out of the apartment building and into the night.

Good thing the city is in the middle of a late spring heat wave, Peter thinks as he walks down the block, rubbing at his arms. Anything below seventy-five degrees and he’d be outright shivering in just a t-shirt and cotton pajama pants.

Looking down at himself, Peter is reminded of the last time he’d been walking around Queens wearing nothing but pajamas and feeling like nothing was how it was supposed to be. 

Instead of the busy fall day that was the disastrous ferry incident it’s the middle of the night, and aside from a few late-night revelers and homeless people sleeping along the sidewalk, the neighborhood is deserted. 

Peter wonders idly if this is what the city was like even during the day the five years he was gone. His heart aches to think of May walking around all by herself and missing him, only to be followed quickly by a different kind of pain when he wonders if she’d still missed him at all once Morgan was there.

Peter doesn’t have a destination in mind, too lost in his thoughts– just letting his feet take him wherever they want to go. When he finally looks up from the ground, he’s surprised to find himself at the local neighborhood park. 

He looks on at the familiar sight for a few moments, debating with himself before finally wandering over– passing by the spring riders and jungle gym, headed for the small bank of tubed slides. Climbing up the structure he looks around once but his spidey-sense is calm, and without another thought he crawls into the nearest slide - perhaps only seven feet in length - and lays down on his back, shimmying in just far enough to be hidden from the street and any passing cops but not so far his weight carries him down. 

Despite being in a tightly enclosed space, for the first time in a month Peter feels like he can actually breathe. The smell of the plastic mixing with the warm city air is comforting– bringing him back to the sunny summer days of his childhood. The light breeze tickles at his hair, and closing his eyes, Peter can almost pretend it’s the feel of May’s fingertips running through his curls.

The effect is soothing, and before long Peter’s blinks get heavier and heavier. It’s not long before he gives in to the pull of sleep, drifting off to far realms.

* * *

Peter wakes up to a sharp yank on his foot, yelping as his body slides down until he’s met with open sky above.

The view doesn’t last long, however, when Iron Man suddenly replaces his field of vision, only for the mask to lift up and reveal a very exhausted, very worried looking Tony Stark.

“Peter? Are you okay? What happened to your forehead?” he asks, reaching a hand to push the hair back from just above Peter’s right eye. “Kid? Say something!”

Peter blinks up at him for a few more seconds, still trying to gather his bearings. 

“Oh, hey,” he finally settles on, Tony staring at him incredulously in response.

“ _Oh hey,_ he says,” Tony finally replies, leaning back up until he’s standing straight again, looking all around the playground in frustration and throwing up a hand. “ _Oh hey,_ yeah, that’s just _great_.”

“What’s wrong?” Peter mumbles, only for the earlier events of the night to flood his memory. Eyes going wide, he pulls his phone out of his pocket to see nineteen missed calls and eleven unread texts– guilt immediately stirring in his gut when he realizes it’s been nearly three hours since he left the apartment. “Oh shit, is May–”

“At home worried sick about you? That’d be a big ten-four, kid,” Tony finishes for him, voice dripping with indignation. “She called me in a panic– said she woke up to find you gone, no note, no message, and you weren’t picking up–”

“I forgot my phone was on silent,” Peter mumbles, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Or well, I didn’t _forget_ exactly– just fell asleep by accident and the volume was turned off.”

“Passing out on accident is no excuse, kid,” Tony sharply replies, but now Peter can see relief in his mentor’s expression, even as Tony’s eyes betray clear concern. “You have no idea what it was like, waking up to your aunt calling me to say you’d just walked out of the apartment in nothing but your pj’s- only for FRIDAY to track your phone and find the device static in the middle of a deserted park.”

Tony pauses, a shadow falling over his features. “I’ll be honest kiddo, my mind didn’t go to the best of places, _especially_ when May told me you’d just had a bad nightmare–”

“Like she cares,” Peter mutters, instantly regretting it when Tony goes rigid, clearly having heard him.

“What was that?” Tony asks, his tone a cross between pissed off and genuinely confused.

Peter shakes his head, trying to defuse the situation. “Nothing, I just– look, I’m really sorry. It won’t happen again.”

But Tony isn’t deterred, the concern in his eyes still not letting up even as the cause for his worry seems to shift.

“FRIDAY, tell May I found Peter and he’s okay,” Tony orders, eyeing Peter for a few moments before adding, “And let her know we’re going to have a quick chat but he’ll be home soon.”

Peter grimaces as he watches the entire suit retract into its case, only to barely hold back a laugh when he sees Tony is still wearing his pajamas as well– complete with a t-shirt with a battery charging symbol on it, the text above reading _SUPERHERO MODE LOADING._

“It was a gift,” Tony begrudgingly mutters when he catches Peter’s smirk, but his gaze is soft. Without missing a beat, he walks over to the nearby swing-set, motioning for Peter to follow.

With a long sigh Peter trudges after him, collapsing into the swing next to Tony, only to look down at his sneakers. 

“You know I can’t just let that comment slide, Pete,” Tony says after a few minutes of tense silence.

Peter frowns, digging a shoe into the playground’s rubber surface. “I figured.”

“So spill, kid. Why don’t you think May cares about your nightmares?”

Peter doesn’t speak right away, and is grateful when Tony doesn’t push– giving him time to gather his thoughts.

“Ben and May used to bring me here all the time when I was a little kid,” Peter finally says, looking out across the park. “After my parents died, all I wanted to do was sit in my room and play alone, but after a while they started basically forcing me to go and do stuff. They took me to the zoo, ice skating, the library… anything to make sure I wasn’t just avoiding the world, I guess. And one place we came to all the time was here.”

“It’s a nice park,” Tony says lightly after a few moments, clearly prompting him to continue.

Peter pauses, thinking of how Ben had nicknamed them _The Parker Three_ on those outings– wishing for nothing more than that it was still the three of them against the world, like it used to be.

“Then after Ben died, those first few months… it was really hard for both of us, y’know? And there were nights when neither of us could sleep, so we’d stay up on the couch, watching old TV shows and pretending that a huge part of our family wasn’t missing. But one night, instead of turning on the TV May told me to put on my shoes and jacket– said we needed to get back out there, just like we did after my parents died. And we came here and it helped, if only a little.”

“Is that why you came here tonight?”

Peter shakes his head. “I didn’t mean to– not on purpose anyway. But it’s what I thought about as soon as I saw the playground. That, and how May probably comes here with Morgan now instead of me.”

“Ah,” Tony says, tone still light. “May mentioned something happened with Morgan before you left, but she didn’t share the details.”

Peter chews on his lip. “I had a nightmare about Titan, probably the worst I’ve had so far. I guess I must have been crying out in my sleep because Morgan woke up scared and started crying too.”

“And I suppose May came in?”

Peter nods. “She did, but…”

“She went to Morgan,” Tony finishes for him.

Peter takes a deep breath, trying to will the tears he can feel forming away.

“Everything is so different now, Mr. Stark,” he says. “I know it’s been five years for all of you, but it’s only been weeks for me. Like, just last month everything was fine– it was _normal,_ and now… now suddenly there’s this little girl that everyone tells me is my sister but I don’t _feel_ like she’s my sister. And I know she doesn’t see me as her brother, not yet anyway. She’s always throwing tantrums and so clingy with May and that just makes me try to like, back off or make myself smaller or something, which just makes May give me this _look_ like she still misses me even though I’m right there. It’s– I can _see_ how torn May is all the time, not sure which of us to deal with first. But she always chooses Morgan, which makes sense because she’s just a little kid and I’m not but at the same time sometimes I…”

Peter takes another deep breath, but this time it comes out with a shudder, the tears falling despite his attempts to stop them. 

Eventually Peter continues, voice barely above a whisper. “Sometimes I want to be first again. Sometimes—sometimes I want to be the _only,_ which is awful because what kind of selfish jerk wishes their orphaned sister had never been adopted, y’know? Especially when I see how happy she makes May.”

Peter swipes an arm across his face, sniffling. “May just seems so– so _fulfilled_ now she has a kid of her own and– and all I do is bring her and Morgan down, and–”

“Gonna stop you there for a moment, Pete,” Tony interrupts, voice firm but gentle. “You do know that you’re May’s kid too, right? Just as much as Morgan.”

Peter wipes at his eyes with his fingers, clearing away the last of the tears.

“It doesn’t feel like that, not anymore,” he finally whispers back, voice wet. 

There’s silence from Tony at the admission, Peter staring resolutely down at the ground– not feeling ready to confront the disappointment on his mentor’s face.

“You probably don’t know this, but the same morning the Snap happened– I told Pep I wanted to have a kid with her.”

Peter whips his head up– eyes wide as he looks over at Tony, who is watching him with a thoughtful, slightly bemused look. 

“You _did?”_

“I did,” Tony says with a chuckle, only to sigh. “But then you died, Pete, and… well, I didn’t want another kid after that. Didn’t want much of anything except run away to the lakehouse with Pepper and forget about the world and all its problems, in fact.”

Peter just stares - brain still stuck on the way Tony said _another kid_ \- when Tony continues.

“But you know who didn’t run away, Pete? May Reilly Parker,” Tony says. “I mean, maybe she wanted to– in fact, I’m positive she wanted to, especially in those first few months. But even though your aunt probably had more right than most to just wallow and hide, she did the exact opposite. I used to think you got your kindness streak from your uncle, but all it took was seeing the way your aunt stepped up to realize– that’s 100% pure May, kid. While I was spending most of my time upstate your aunt was devoting all her time to getting NYC’s social services back in order.”

Peter softly laughs. “Yeah, that sounds like her. Ben would’ve helped too, but May… she needs to be _doing_ when there’s a crisis. You should have seen how many times she reorganized the buffet at my uncle’s funeral reception.”

“That helps explain why she couldn’t stop rearranging the flowers at the memorial service we held for you,” Tony says with a small smile, before turning pensive once more. “But still– she missed you so much, Pete. All the time– we both did. There were some days we were in constant communication– when it was all the two of us could do just to get through, knowing you were gone.”

“Really?” Peter asks, genuinely surprised. “But you guys weren’t ever that close before.”

Tony shrugs, clearly going for nonchalant even as he looks anything but. “Shared grief is a powerful thing, kid. But even as we became good friends our conversations always came back to missing you– which is probably why Pepper ended up suggesting we go volunteer to hold babies at the orphanage together.”

“They let _you_ hold babies, Mr. Stark?” Peter teases, smirking.

With a sharp glare Tony tip-toes his swing as far to the right as possible, only to let himself go and swing directly into Peter’s side.

“Hey!”

“Despite all evidence to the contrary, I am quite good with children,” Tony finally replies, smirking in kind. “Just look at how you turned out. I mean, you’re a little shit but otherwise– not too shabby a job.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Peter says with an accompanying eyeroll– not bothering to point out that they didn’t officially meet until he was fourteen. “So, I guess Morgan was one of the babies?”

Tony nods. “Most of the infants got fostered or adopted quickly, but as the months passed– Morgan was always there. It wasn’t long before it was obvious to the entire staff and myself that your aunt was pretty attached. But even then– I don’t think she would have let herself adopt Mo if she hadn’t felt like she had permission.”

“Permission?” Peter asks, confused.

Tony nods. “From you, kid.”

Peter scoffs, shaking his head. “But– but I was _dead,_ Mr. Stark. I wasn’t– I wasn’t even here.”

“That’s true,” Tony admits after a few moments. “But even though you weren’t still physically here, Peter– everything you stood for? The way you were always looking out for the smallest and most vulnerable– that kindness in you? That wasn’t dead, kid, not even close. If you ask me, the whole reason May kept fighting so hard was to keep that part of you alive, because you weren’t here to do it yourself. And when she realized how much she already loved Morgan– I think the final push she needed was knowing it’s what you would want her to do.”

Peter looks down at the ground, mulling over Tony’s words. Ever since he came back, it had been hard not to feel like Morgan somehow replaced him in May’s life. But if what Tony was saying was true, then maybe it wasn’t that Morgan replaced Peter for May, but instead that Morgan was like… well, like a legacy in a way– another way for May to remember Peter, and to share the love she had for him with someone who needed it.

For the first time, Peter felt a real kinship with Morgan– recalling those first few months after his own parents died, when he had been scared Ben and May didn’t really want to keep him.

Even if Morgan couldn’t remember it, Peter supposes she must have been curious as to why her parents were suddenly not there– unable to understand that they had died in a way no Snap could undo.

A new thought occurs to Peter then– wondering if perhaps Morgan’s wariness of him was born of a fear that May would no longer want her now that Peter was back. 

He doesn’t know much about the psychology of suddenly acquiring a sibling, but it certainly seemed possible– hell, it wasn’t all that far removed from Peter’s own insecurities.

“You still with me, Pete?”

Peter shakes his head and glances over at Tony, who is watching him closely.

“Sorry, I’m with you,” Peter answers. “Just thinking about how Morgan and I might have more in common than I thought.”

Tony softly smiles. “I think you might too.”

After a few seconds Tony stands up from his swing, stretching with a yawn as he looks east toward where the sun has just barely risen, casting everything with a soft blue glow.

“All right kid, I think I’m full-up on my feelings talk quota for the day and it’s barely begun. You good for now?”

Peter’s lips curl as he too stands up. “Yeah, I think so. Thanks for coming out here and talking to me about– all that.”

Without hesitating Tony steps forward, enveloping Peter in a hug which he readily falls into. “Of course, kid. Anytime you need me, I’m here for you– no matter what.”

They stand like that - arms clasped tight around each other - for a solid minute, before Tony finally asks, “You good to head home?”

Peter nods into Tony’s shoulder, both of them reluctantly pulling away.

Moments later Tony is back in the suit. “Alright, give me a call later today– we’ll make a plan to have you back out to the lake. Got a few suit upgrades to run by you.”

“Will do,” Peter replies just as Tony lifts off the ground, hovering in the air.

“Happy trails, Pete,” he says, before taking off into the pink-tinged clouds.

* * *

When Peter quietly opens the apartment door, it’s to find May sitting at the dining room table, still wearing her robe and staring listlessly into a cup of coffee. 

But as soon as she hears the door click she’s up out of her chair, practically running over.

Peter takes a deep breath. “May, I’m so–”

 _“Peter,”_ May whispers as she wraps her arms around him tightly, just as she had on the roof weeks before. “Thank god. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, I promise,” Peter reassures her even as May pulls away and inspects him from head to toe, taking a long look at the nearly-healed bruise on his forehead before their eyes meet– the two of them holding a lengthy gaze.

Seeing May’s red-rimmed eyes brings back all Peter’s earlier guilt, and he finds himself starting to tear up again, reaching out to take one of her hands and squeezing tightly.

“I’m so sorry, Aunt May. I needed to get some air but then I accidentally fell asleep outside and my phone was on silent and–”

“Please don’t, sweetheart,” May says, laughing sadly as she gives Peter’s hand a light squeeze in return only to let it go, turning away as she rubs her forehead. “I’m the one who should be apologizing. I conked out in Morgan’s bed before I made sure to check on you, and when I woke up and you were gone…”

May turns back to face him, gently placing her hands on each side of his face. “God, Peter, I’m so _so_ sorry– I hate to think how that must have made you feel, and I just– I’m so _angry_ at myself for making you think I didn’t care and– god, I’m just so, so sorry, sweetheart.”

Peter shakes his head. “This one’s on me– I shouldn’t have left in the first place.”

“We’ll have to agree to disagree on that one, kiddo,” May says after a few moments, letting her hands fall to Peter’s shoulders and patting them twice before dropping her arms. “I can’t even begin to imagine what you’ve been going through and I know I haven’t been very attentive. I’m going to try to do better from now on, I promise.”

“You’ve been doing great, May,” Peter says, really meaning it. “I– I think it’s just really hard, for all three of us, y’know? But we’ll get through it.”

May’s eyes light up at Peter’s optimism, her expression turning hopeful. “You think so?”

Peter nods, smiling. “I _know_ so.”

“Oh, honey, it makes me so happy to hear you say that,” May says with a giant grin, and if Peter thought the room was already filled to the brim with sunlight– well, he was wrong. 

“Alright, time to get some shut-eye before Little Miss gets up,” May says with a wink, giving Peter another fierce hug. “I love you so much, Peter.”

“I love you too, May,” Peter replies, hugging her back. In that moment, all he wants is for both of them - for _all_ of them - to always be as content as Peter feels right now, safe in his aunt’s arms.

But first, baby steps.

“Hey May?” he asks into her shoulder.

May pulls away, a hint of concern in her eyes. “What’s up, buttercup?”

“I was thinking maybe later today, we could all go to the park together,” Peter says, only to add softly with a shrug, “Y’know, officially get the Parker Three back out there.”

May watches him for a few moments, before her expression softens in understanding. Her voice is full of love when she finally replies.

“It’s a plan, kiddo.”

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and kudos are most appreciated. Or come hang out with me on [tumblr](https://blondsak.tumblr.com)!


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